Despite following user instructions, I'm unable to install xfdesktop 4.10.2 via PPA -- which said it's not there -- or the downloaded package I tried previously which had all kinds of arcane directions to compile. Among other things I want this version which fixes the desktop slideshow. Any recommendations for a newbie? Thanks!

Jim in NYC

Last edited by jimwg on Wed Mar 20, 2013 8:28 am, edited 1 time in total.

jimwg wrote:Among other things I want this version which fixes the desktop slideshow.

According to a thread I read on the Xfce forum - and in the 4.10.1 release notes - that bug is fixed in xfdesktop 4.10.1.

Is that not the case for you? Or are you currently using 4.10 (and skipping 4.10.1 altogether)?

Updating xfdesktop to a newer version than is preinstalled in Mint 14 Xfce does not seem to be a popular thing to do, lol. I notice that your thread has 59 views and mine, directly below yours (which asks if anyone has updated to 4.10.1, if so how they did it and were there any issues/reasons I might not want to) has 43 - however, not a single reply to either thread other than this one.

When I browsed the Xfce forum the other day, I believe I saw some threads of the "How do I install/update Xfce/component on (user's OS)?" variety, and I think there were replies to some of those. Therefore, we might receive useful help if we ask our questions there. However, I asked mine here both because I wanted to know for sure (well... as sure as I can be) that the person helping me is someone who actually uses Mint (14) Xfce and is basing es help on concrete knowledge specific to our OS, as opposed to someone who is knowledgable about Xfce 4.10 but is only assuming that their knowledge applies to us (which might, in fact, be the case, but learning - afterwards - that it does not could be rather annoying ) and because I thought learning how to safely and correctly update one of the core(?) components themselves instead of waiting on the version in our repositories to be updated might be of use/interest to other Mint Xfce users here.

Speaking of updates to the repos, there's a thought, lol. Time to create another thread...

Good luck and please remember to update this thread if/when you (successfully) update,MDM

---Mint 17.1 Xfce 4.12.If the fact that my post is longer than a standard SMS message causes you to be unable to take meaning from it, do not blame me for something that is either the fact of the school teachers you had or the sludge between your ears.

Hello. Caught me in a hurry. This thread advises that cron can be set to a minimum of one minute - but that you can use the sleep command to cause your script to pause for n seconds before looping. The information in the thread may still be current (the thread is 5½ years old).

Hope this helps. BtW, figure out the xfdesktop update, yet? Oh... wait. If you had, you wouldn't need to know the above (whoops).

Hope this helps,MDM

---Mint 17.1 Xfce 4.12.If the fact that my post is longer than a standard SMS message causes you to be unable to take meaning from it, do not blame me for something that is either the fact of the school teachers you had or the sludge between your ears.

Despite following user instructions, I'm unable to install xfdesktop 4.10.2 via PPA -- which said it's not there -- or the downloaded package I tried previously which had all kinds of arcane directions to compile. Among other things I want this version which fixes the desktop slideshow. Any recommendations for a newbie? Thanks!

Jim in NYC

If you just want to rotate a background images for the desktop you might take a look at DesktopNova from the repositories. It is doing OK for me on the current Mint/XFCE desktop but I have not tried to rotate the images as fast as you want. Good Luck

If you don't like it, make something betterIf you can't make something better, adaptIf you can't do either ball your panties up and cry.

Complaining is like masticating most anyone can do it.However doing it in public is really hardcore.

I just realized that you were trying to install from a PPA and not from the tar files available at the Xfce home site. <SLAPS FOREHEAD> I don't know how I made that mistake.

I don't know whether or not I should mention it, but when I realized what you were trying to do - and that there was a PPA for this in the first place - I added it to my sources, ran Update Manager (I did that instead of typing sudo apt-get update into a terminal window because I wanted to see exactly what would be updated on my system and to have a chance to easily pick and choose which files it updated), clicked on the button to perform the update... and it did so without spitting out a single error. I then restarted my computer and everything seems to be fine. Better than fine, actually, as adding this PPA killed at least a couple bugs that I've experienced and added some features that I was hoping to see. So thank you for that.

Anyway, I just managed to accomplish what you were trying to do. So we should be able to figure out your issue.

jimwg wrote:Despite following user instructions, I'm unable to install xfdesktop 4.10.2 via PPA -- which said it's not there -- or the downloaded package I tried previously which had all kinds of arcane directions to compile.

What, exactly, were those instructions?

What, exactly, did you do when you made the attempt(s) and what, if any, error messages were displayed?

But I just closed the terminal window, ran Update Manager (and typed in my sudo password), clicked on the Refresh button, looked at the additional packages in the list that it wanted to update, and clicked on the Install Updates button. UM did its thing, I exited the app and rebooted my system to ensure that all of the changes got picked up...

And I must have gotten the new xfdesktop file installed correctly, because it definitely fixed bugs.

If you follow the above procedure, it should work fine and update your xfdesktop to the current version. Give it a shot and let me know. (BtW, if it works, please go back and edit the subject in your first post in the thread to add [SOLVED] to the end of it (thanks!).)

Good luck,MDM

---Mint 17.1 Xfce 4.12.If the fact that my post is longer than a standard SMS message causes you to be unable to take meaning from it, do not blame me for something that is either the fact of the school teachers you had or the sludge between your ears.

demtri wrote:since you guys went ahead and did the update.. has it been giving any problems?

i installed mint 14 xfce today and i added the ppa and was wondering if to do the update or not.. but was hesitant..

As in all things, YMMV, of course.

But, no, I haven't noticed any problems (and I screw things up by looking at them ). My experience at this point has been formerly existing issues fixed and no new ones created. That applies to the core Xfce, the desktop (bug where desktop background auto-changer wasn't working is fixed, the regression (from that fix) which caused 100% CPU usage when solid-color background was chosen is also fixed and the issue that was causing the desktop panel (bar?) to stay unhid after using, that behavior is fixed 99.9% of the time now, too), the compositor (I turned it on to enable being able to place my mouse cursor on the window's title bar, hold down my Alt button, and "scroll down" with my mousepad or mouse wheel to make the window transparent - works great if you wish to surf the web or use your email app and have a video playing in full-screen underneath it in Vlc, lol), Thunar (multiple directories at the same times in tabs is working fine and no more double-entries for removable media), Orage calendar (not sure what improvements/fixes were added to it because I only installed this app after updating - but it works fine), the weather applet (improvements and seems more mature now), and anything else that was improved... I haven't seen any problems.

Again, YMMV, but I would go ahead and take the updates if I was in your shoes.

Hope this helps,MDM

PS: If/when you do, please return to this thread to mention whether or not you experienced any problems.

---Mint 17.1 Xfce 4.12.If the fact that my post is longer than a standard SMS message causes you to be unable to take meaning from it, do not blame me for something that is either the fact of the school teachers you had or the sludge between your ears.

demtri wrote:since you guys went ahead and did the update.. has it been giving any problems?

i installed mint 14 xfce today and i added the ppa and was wondering if to do the update or not.. but was hesitant..

As in all things, YMMV, of course.

But, no, I haven't noticed any problems (and I screw things up by looking at them ). My experience at this point has been formerly existing issues fixed and no new ones created. That applies to the core Xfce, the desktop (bug where desktop background auto-changer wasn't working is fixed, the regression (from that fix) which caused 100% CPU usage when solid-color background was chosen is also fixed and the issue that was causing the desktop panel (bar?) to stay unhid after using, that behavior is fixed 99.9% of the time now, too), the compositor (I turned it on to enable being able to place my mouse cursor on the window's title bar, hold down my Alt button, and "scroll down" with my mousepad or mouse wheel to make the window transparent - works great if you wish to surf the web or use your email app and have a video playing in full-screen underneath it in Vlc, lol), Thunar (multiple directories at the same times in tabs is working fine and no more double-entries for removable media), Orage calendar (not sure what improvements/fixes were added to it because I only installed this app after updating - but it works fine), the weather applet (improvements and seems more mature now), and anything else that was improved... I haven't seen any problems.

Again, YMMV, but I would go ahead and take the updates if I was in your shoes.

Hope this helps,MDM

PS: If/when you do, please return to this thread to mention whether or not you experienced any problems.

can you tell me the ppas u used? .. let me see if i have the one for thundar cause i didnt see that one in the repo

It's spelled THUNAR. I'm not trying to be a spelling n@zi here, but if you don't have it spelled correctly in your searches, you won't be able to find it.

Here is my (current) sources list:

(Click on the thumbnail image to see a bigger picture.)

Also - this probably won't apply unless you are using Mint 14 - on the LinuxMint tab, I have enabled main, upstream, imported, backported, and unstable packages.

In years past, I have enabled the extra repositories and occasionally had problems (which were fixed in the following days by more updates), but so far I have had zero problems with either Mint or Xfce.

---Mint 17.1 Xfce 4.12.If the fact that my post is longer than a standard SMS message causes you to be unable to take meaning from it, do not blame me for something that is either the fact of the school teachers you had or the sludge between your ears.

demtri wrote:yeah, i pretty much have the same set up... i bit the nail and did the update... about to reboot and see the goodies lol

update - did everything and all seems to be working fine... actually.. better than fine... thanks alot bud

update 2 - thunar 1.6.2 is great.. they really fixed a few annoyances

Yep - worked for me too.Adding the xubuntu-dev repositories (both 4.10 and 4.12 as shown in his screen capture) will update both xfce and Thunar.There is a warning about the repository being intended for Precise Pangolin (12.04), but no matter, it still worked okay on Linux Mint Nadia Xfce.I'm watching video now on the machine, and verified that Thunar was updated from 1.4 to 1.62.